Many modern travel tickets are made from a paper medium which is more or less reinforced in order to have sufficient rigidity. The term "card" is used herein to designate such a medium which generally includes a magnetic track. In some cases the ticket may also have lines of weakness to enable one or more coupons to be separated therefrom, eg, during ticket inspection.
In general, the processing of such tickets begins with a valid ticket being created on a blank ticket medium, continues with the ticket being inspected one or more times, and ends, where applicable, with the ticket being cancelled after use.
Preferred embodiments of the present invention provide apparatus which is suitable both for creating tickets and for inspecting and/or cancelling tickets, such preferred apparatus is mechanically simple, is reliable even when damaged tickets are presented to it, and is reasonably priced for the applications of this type of apparatus.